Connect on Slack

Join our Hack Productivity-only Slack channel. You can use this channel to not only talk in real time with other participants (and maybe find a teammate), and also to ask questions of the competition managers. Just make sure to be respectful – we all have the same goal (building cool stuff).

Questions?

If you haven’t cast your vote yet for your favorite new productivity app, there’s still time. The polls will remain open until 5pm ET on March 18. Spread the word and tell your friends & family to vote for you!

It’s your turn to pick the winner! Browse the submission gallery and vote for your favorite productivity app. Be sure to spread the word through your social networks, too! The last day to vote is March 18.

Whew, it’s the home stretch! There’s only one week left to submit your productivity app (or app idea) to Hack Productivity. Submissions are due March 1 before 5pm ET. Find out what time that is in your city.

Never submitted a project on Devpost before? Take a look at our step-by-step video tutorial on how to use the hackathon submission form.

Does your productivity hack need a little finessing? Or do you just want to check in to make sure you’re on the right track? Drop into our second online office hours Tuesday, 2/9, from 12-1pm EST with Microsoft tech evangelist Doug Perkes & get answers to your development questions.

You can join the Skype session here, or just dial in to listen at +14803832850 (USA, Phoenix) w/ Conference ID 5407417.

With one month remaining until the submission deadline, we figured a little extra help wouldn’t hurt. So we’re holding another online office hours session next Tuesday, 2/9, at 9am PT / 12pm ET. Add the Skype event to your calendar now to record the join URL and dial-in for the event +14803832850 (USA, Phoenix); Conference ID 5407417.

On deck to answer your technical questions will be Doug Perkes, a technical evangelist at Microsoft. Doug spends time working closely with customers and partners to help with technology adoption across the Microsoft platform. He specializes in SharePoint (dev and infrastructure), ASP.NET, C#,…

Starting a submission is a good way to make sure that your solution meets the requirements. There’s nothing worse than getting to the deadline, only to realize that you’re missing a key component. Remember: once you submit a project, you can keep editing it as needed at any time prior to the submission deadline.

We’ve got a change to the rules and requirements that affects you — so listen up.

After receiving feedback from participants and our technical support team, we’ve decided to change the primary hackathon requirement slightly.

Previously, the competition’s main requirement was to create a productivity-focused app that included integration of both a new Add-in AND one or more of the following Office 365 APIs (Mail, Calendar, Files, Photos/Video, or Contacts) or Microsoft Graph.

Please note that we are updating this requirement as follows:

Create a working software application that will help users increase their productivity in any…

You can join via the link below to view any shared content and ask IM questions, or by phone to just listen in. If dialing in by phone, you'll need the conference code to join (Conference ID: 89734785).

We know you’re focused on building your Office 365 Add-in and figuring out your productivity app, but don't forget about your submission video. It's often the first (and sometimes only!) thing that judges and voters review.

A good video tells the story behind your submission, providing a clear and concise explanation of what your app is and does. Here are some tips and a list of screencasting tools:

Establish your elevator pitch. In the first few seconds of your video, explain why your app (or app idea) is awesome. You can get into the details of how it works…

Welcome to the second half of the competition! In case you’ve got a touch of post-holiday blues, we’re throwing a couple tech prezzies your way:

Hack Productivity partner Smartsheet has an API that lets you integrate their work collaboration tool into Office 365 & Azure. Find it on the resources page.

We’re extending our New Year’s promotion for a couple extra weeks. That means you have until January 31 (or until all trials are claimed) to tell us what your team is working on and get free 90-day Azure trials for you and each of your teammates (Five trials…

Logistics: We’ll be hosting the Q&A on Skype, so please make sure you have Skype software installed. To ask questions during the event, type “Question” into the chat window, and we’ll call you when it's your turn to ask a question.

We hope your 2016 is off to a great start — and guess what? — we want to hear what you’re working on, and give you a little New Year’s gift!

The Microsoft Office 365 team is providing free 90-day Azure trials for the first 50 teams to give us a hint about what they’re building (limit 5 trials per team/submission). To claim your free trial, simply fill out this form by January 17. We’ll send promotional codes out by January 20 to you and all of the teammates you’ve listed.

Microsoft has a new mission, and we need you to help us achieve it. Earlier this year, we announced this new company mission: to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Is this a strong statement and a sizeable goal? Yes. Is it doable? We know it is, with you by our side to help us think big.

Microsoft’s goal to empower all people and organizations is not just a corporate agenda. It's a global directive, inspired by humanity’s drive to push harder, produce more, and work smarter. We will create the right tools to allow…

Thanks for joining Hack Productivity! You're officially registered now, and we’ll be sending you regular updates throughout the competition.

Here’s how to get started on your project today. Submissions are due March 1, 2016, at 5pm ET.

Plan your attack. Visit the resources page for instructions on how to sign up for a free Microsoft developer account, plus tutorials, access to the Office Developer GitHub repo, code samples, and more. You can also check out some potential productivity scenarios here.